Shopping Centre

Yesterday I sat on the floor of our new apartment waiting for the rental furniture to be delivered. The relocation company is providing us with "furniture hire" because our shipment was inexplicably delayed by 3 weeks.

Finally they arrived and dropped off a bed with sheets and pillows, a love seat, a coffee table, a few lamps, and box of kitchen goods. After I unpacked the boxes with the linens and kitchen stuff, I realized they forgot to give us the bath towels and all they included in the kitchen box was dishes - they didn't provide the basic kitchen supplies set with pots and pans, etc. So, still more eating out for us for a few more days!

After I made the bed, I decided to walk to the giant shopping centre to buy cleaning supplies. I emptied a small wheeled suitcase and took that with me to haul my stuff back in, since it's 3.4 km round trip.

Who'd have thought finding the right store to buy cleaning supplies would be hard? First I went into Target. It has the same logo as the American one, but apparently it's not the same company - they settled a lawsuit and the Aussie one can still use the red and white target logo, even though they're a different company.

This Aussie Target had some clothes, toys, bedding, some things for the bathroom like shower curtains, kitchen stuff like dishes, toasters, etc and that was about it. They didn't have any cleaning stuff at all, and I don't think they had anything like a Health and Beauty section, either. So, they don't stock as many types of items as American Target.

Next stop, K-Mart. Again, the logo looks the same, but according to this article from Discount Store News, the American company sold its interest in K-Mart Australia in 1978 to Coles, an Aussie grocery store chain.

Sidenote, the grocery store market in Australia, or at least New South Wales, is basically a duopoly. There are a few smaller stores, but by far the majority of one's options for nearby supermarkets are either Coles or Woolworths, generally known as Woolies.

Back to K-Mart, it stocks a larger selection of types of items than Target - they also sell automotive supplies, camping gear, make up, some snack food, etc. However, the cleaning aisle only had laundry detergent (aka washing powder) and bleach. There were no garbage bags, no Windex type cleaners, no regular kitchen sponges (although there were a few scrubber items near the mops and brooms). What the ef?

So, off to Coles. Previously, I'd only been to the Coles Express in the CBD (Central Business District - aka downtown), and I'd never seen any cleaning supplies there. This was the big Coles, though, and they had a whole aisle with tons of different scrubbie sponges, garbage bags, floor cleaners, Windex, dishwasher detergent, etc.

Hooray, I finally found everything I needed. It only took me several hours and having to go to 3 different stores. And then walking 1.7 km home while wheeling a suitcase full of stuff! (Thank goodness all 3 stores were in the same giant shopping centre!)